I have a Mercury Mountaineer, all Wheel Drive, yesterday I was sitting on a slick wet spot slanted up, when I started the car just seem to be spinning, got out and the rear wheels were digging in (Slightly) and spinning in the mud, the front wheels show no evidence of movement, as though they were revolving , Is this normal? thought that the transfer of traction would kick in at this time.

yeah, fairly normal, but you should get one of the front wheels to spin. Is the car normally front wheel drive, or rear wheel drive in the 2wd version. Subaru has the best AWD system out there. It can actually send torque to the wheels that have traction instead of just sending all the torque to the wheels that just spin. Either go Subaru, or go with true 4wd with lockers.

Thanks, its normally rear wheel dr, it hasn't bothered me, however I was just wondering if I might have a problem

It is probably normal. the transfer case in most AWD vehicles can't put send much power to the axle that is not the standard axle. So in your case most of the torque will go to the rear tires, in front wheel drive cars with a awd system most of their power will go to the front axle. In the Subaru it can send 50% to both at the same time. That is the reason I bought a Forrester last year. Did lots of research before hand.

Again, thanks

Bought this car at a VERY reasonable price after the other owner thought it had a bad trans, was not what he thought, about $300 brought it back to good driving condition and need another vehicle just to run errands and a few VA visits, It's really a tank, I mistakenly left the keys in it and found out how solid it was . Again, thanks

Your welcome, hope it keeps serving you well.